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Betrayal on the Border
Former army communications specialist Maddie Jerrard may not remember the details of the deadly mission on the Texas-Mexico border, but she knows one thing. She's not responsible for the massive ambush that left only her and investigative journalist Chris Mason alive. Yet with suspicion—and danger—targeting Maddie and Chris, and a killer on their trail, partnering up is the only solution. But as Maddie and Chris get closer to uncovering the truth, they'll have to trust each other to make it through alive.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
48 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Jill Elizabeth Nelson
75 books59 followersJill Elizabeth Nelson writes what she likes to read—tales of adventure seasoned with romance, humor, and faith, earning her the tagline: Endless Adventure, Timeless Truth. Jill speaks regularly at conferences, writer’s groups, library associations, and civic and church groups. When teaching classes for writers, she thrills to bring the Ahah! moment to her students as they make a new skill their own. Jill and her husband live in rural Minnesota where they raised four children.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 2, 2014
Before I delve into my feelings about this book, I feel I should preface this with the fact that I read this as an assignment. At the library where I work, every year we are assigned different reading tasks, which we have dubbed CORE, in order to make sure our reference work is well balanced. This year, I had to pick two titles outside of my comfort zone. Anything in the Inspirational section is outside my comfort zone, and I'm not huge on crime fiction, so this fit quite well. It was not a horrible read. I've definitely suffered worse. Just not my cup of tea; so, even if this book is awesome for other people, it wasn't going to get a high rating from me to begin with. All things considered, giving this a 2 is a good grade. Now, onward.
... CHEESE. So much cheese. Even with clean fiction, I feel authors do not need to pepper their stories with excessively cheesy dialogue and awkward phrases. I could be okay with it if the characters were introduced as having a particular quirk in that fashion, or if the area had a certain dialect. Neither of those situations were presented to me, so I was left a tad baffled by the author's choice of many words. Maddie and Chris, our protagonists, are introduced as late twenty-somethings. However, by how they talk, I would have guessed late thirties to forty easy. I'm 26, and I have never heard someone my age use such phrasing. "Happier than a mustang in high grass." "Don't count your chickadees before they hatch, buckaroo." Are these people ranchers? Nope. And Chris is often enough described with laugh lines around his eyes. How much have you been smiling that you have crow's feet before you're 30? I just think the author was writing her age and not the age she assigned her characters. Oh, one more. Took me a minute to realize what this line was: "Come flashflood or hot place." (Just say Hell or High Water. Christian fiction can still say Hell).
Story wise, it was decent. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the characters involved, the mystery was enjoyable. However, the confrontation was incredibly short and abrupt. Happened in the last ten minutes of the book. Lots of looking, and snooping, and researching, and then suddenly Oh! We're there! We know everything! The end. It could have been mapped out better. For the romance, please refer back to the CHEESE. It wasn't very believable for me. We are told that Maddie and Chris have a slightly saucy past, but the flashbacks are random and inconclusive. Their current interactions obviously yield attraction, but again I'm only being TOLD, not SHOWN.
Overall, for the right patron, I would recommend this book and others like it. The Love Inspired Suspense covers quite a bit of the shelves, and they are indeed popular... with the right crowd. So, if you're looking for a bit of NCIS with characters who are less developed and a tad awkward, a small evangelical lesson, and absolutely no smut (couple kisses), pick it up. Odds are, you'll like it.
... CHEESE. So much cheese. Even with clean fiction, I feel authors do not need to pepper their stories with excessively cheesy dialogue and awkward phrases. I could be okay with it if the characters were introduced as having a particular quirk in that fashion, or if the area had a certain dialect. Neither of those situations were presented to me, so I was left a tad baffled by the author's choice of many words. Maddie and Chris, our protagonists, are introduced as late twenty-somethings. However, by how they talk, I would have guessed late thirties to forty easy. I'm 26, and I have never heard someone my age use such phrasing. "Happier than a mustang in high grass." "Don't count your chickadees before they hatch, buckaroo." Are these people ranchers? Nope. And Chris is often enough described with laugh lines around his eyes. How much have you been smiling that you have crow's feet before you're 30? I just think the author was writing her age and not the age she assigned her characters. Oh, one more. Took me a minute to realize what this line was: "Come flashflood or hot place." (Just say Hell or High Water. Christian fiction can still say Hell).
Story wise, it was decent. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the characters involved, the mystery was enjoyable. However, the confrontation was incredibly short and abrupt. Happened in the last ten minutes of the book. Lots of looking, and snooping, and researching, and then suddenly Oh! We're there! We know everything! The end. It could have been mapped out better. For the romance, please refer back to the CHEESE. It wasn't very believable for me. We are told that Maddie and Chris have a slightly saucy past, but the flashbacks are random and inconclusive. Their current interactions obviously yield attraction, but again I'm only being TOLD, not SHOWN.
Overall, for the right patron, I would recommend this book and others like it. The Love Inspired Suspense covers quite a bit of the shelves, and they are indeed popular... with the right crowd. So, if you're looking for a bit of NCIS with characters who are less developed and a tad awkward, a small evangelical lesson, and absolutely no smut (couple kisses), pick it up. Odds are, you'll like it.
April 6, 2018
Given Maddie and Chris' past history, their unwillingness to work together (at least on Maddie's part) made sense. I loved that unraveling the mystery required both Chris' investigative journalism skills and Maddie's ranger skills. This was a satisfying mystery where everything worked together and the characters were likeable.
January 31, 2020
Very well written; however, there were so many unanswered questions remaining at the end...
August 29, 2024
Inspirational romantic suspense.
Read
March 15, 2017This was a nail biting edge of your seat and a very interesting book to read.
December 5, 2012
4 STARS
Betrayal on the Border is a Love Inspired Suspense. It kept the suspense for most of the book and then they had to prove it. It is also a fast clean read. I enjoyed the novel.
Former army communications specialist Maddie Jerrard survived attack on her unit. They were on a joint mission to go across the border and raid a drug cartel. Someone gave them up. Maddie was injured and can't remember a lot of what happened that night. She was debriefed and cleared. Then she went into hiding. On three different times someone had tried to kill her. She was using a different name.
Maddie is now a apartment repairman. She was sent into a apartment to fix something and saw that they had been fixing a bomb. She was searching for the bomb when the owners came back in. She took them down and asked them where the bomb was. The news on t.v. showed that a reporter's car was bombed.
Maddie got her to go bag and was leaving on the run again. The bomb was not meant for her but the other survivor of the border attack investigative journalist Chris Mason.
It was close to her apartment building. Plus once the cops started taking prints in the bomb makers apartment they would be asking questions about her being their.
Chris learned a lot from when he was able to be thier as the task force was training and getting ready for thier mission. One thing he learned from Maddie was always start your car from key chain before you get to close. He was not in his car. But he did find Maddie's car.
Maddie does not trust that Chris was not the informer to the cartel but teamed up with him to figure out who was. They started searching and questioning those who knew about the mission and second stop they found a agent dead just barely.
Now they were wanted for questioning. The more they find the more action and danger occurs.
I really could see the story as Jill described it and got involved in the case. I will read more of Jill's work in the future.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review from Netgalley.
Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense (December 1, 2012) pages 224 ASIN: B0092ML93O
Betrayal on the Border is a Love Inspired Suspense. It kept the suspense for most of the book and then they had to prove it. It is also a fast clean read. I enjoyed the novel.
Former army communications specialist Maddie Jerrard survived attack on her unit. They were on a joint mission to go across the border and raid a drug cartel. Someone gave them up. Maddie was injured and can't remember a lot of what happened that night. She was debriefed and cleared. Then she went into hiding. On three different times someone had tried to kill her. She was using a different name.
Maddie is now a apartment repairman. She was sent into a apartment to fix something and saw that they had been fixing a bomb. She was searching for the bomb when the owners came back in. She took them down and asked them where the bomb was. The news on t.v. showed that a reporter's car was bombed.
Maddie got her to go bag and was leaving on the run again. The bomb was not meant for her but the other survivor of the border attack investigative journalist Chris Mason.
It was close to her apartment building. Plus once the cops started taking prints in the bomb makers apartment they would be asking questions about her being their.
Chris learned a lot from when he was able to be thier as the task force was training and getting ready for thier mission. One thing he learned from Maddie was always start your car from key chain before you get to close. He was not in his car. But he did find Maddie's car.
Maddie does not trust that Chris was not the informer to the cartel but teamed up with him to figure out who was. They started searching and questioning those who knew about the mission and second stop they found a agent dead just barely.
Now they were wanted for questioning. The more they find the more action and danger occurs.
I really could see the story as Jill described it and got involved in the case. I will read more of Jill's work in the future.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange of honest review from Netgalley.
Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense (December 1, 2012) pages 224 ASIN: B0092ML93O
December 2, 2012
"Betrayal on the Border" from author Jill Elizabeth Nelson offers a strong, appealing female lead, and a hunky hero who is man enough to follow a capable woman. Maddie Jerrard was a dedicated army communications specialist who survived the ambush at the Rio Grande which annihilated the special forces team of which she was a member. The only other survivor is Chris Mason, an investigative journalist. A year after the tragedy, Maddie's memories of what occurred remain jumbled. However, the killers remember her and Chris very well, and when new threats come to the surface, Maddie and Chris are reunited and on the run for their lives. Although Maddie joins in fugitive flight with Chris, she dares not fully trust him. Dealing with a lifetime of abandonment and betrayal issues has left Maddie with many questions of faith. One thing is clear, and that is her innate sense of what is right and what is wrong. Chris is a determined news hound, sniffing out the truth no matter how much it places him in peril. Can these two hearts find the truth and conquer their fears as well as their enemy? Will a burgeoning love survive all and come into full bloom, and will faith find its rightful place? Great characters with an intriguing role-reversal and a dynamic story line come together for a compelling and enjoyable romantic suspense read.
November 2, 2012
Loved it! Maddie is on the run. She is a former army specialist whose whole unit got ambushed and killed on the Mexican border. Only she and Chris, a famous reporter survived. Since leaving the hospital after her recovery someone has tried to kill her multiple times and she can't even remember what happened that night! She knows she didn't betray her unit and country so it had to be Chris...right?
I felt so bad for Maddie. She is strong, tough, and completely alone. She is wonderfully trained thanks to the military and she has had to call upon them to stay alive. Chris is a strong, steady man whose determination to find the truth makes Maddie want to trust him but she just can't risk it. I liked the fact faith was not shattered but shaken in this book. Woven through the story it fits and isn't forced. Plenty of suspense and a spark or two of romance!!
A definite 5/5. I'm keeping this one!
Thank you to netgalley for the review copy of this book. I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.
I felt so bad for Maddie. She is strong, tough, and completely alone. She is wonderfully trained thanks to the military and she has had to call upon them to stay alive. Chris is a strong, steady man whose determination to find the truth makes Maddie want to trust him but she just can't risk it. I liked the fact faith was not shattered but shaken in this book. Woven through the story it fits and isn't forced. Plenty of suspense and a spark or two of romance!!
A definite 5/5. I'm keeping this one!
Thank you to netgalley for the review copy of this book. I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.
September 22, 2013
Betrayal on the Border pulled me in right from the beginning and just didn't let up! This is one action packed book!
Maddie Jerrard and Chris Mason are on the run. They survived an attack a year earlier, but can they survive the next few days as they try to discover who was behind the attack? Maddie must also contend with memory loss from the event. She really does not know who to trust. She longs to trust Chris with all of her heart, but fears that he was behind the betrayal a year earlier.
Betrayal on the Border is full of action, political intrigue and lots of romance. The author did an amazing job creating tension and attraction between Maddie and Chris.
I received a free copy of the book through a contest on Suspense Sisters. I was not required to write a review, but happily do so.
Maddie Jerrard and Chris Mason are on the run. They survived an attack a year earlier, but can they survive the next few days as they try to discover who was behind the attack? Maddie must also contend with memory loss from the event. She really does not know who to trust. She longs to trust Chris with all of her heart, but fears that he was behind the betrayal a year earlier.
Betrayal on the Border is full of action, political intrigue and lots of romance. The author did an amazing job creating tension and attraction between Maddie and Chris.
I received a free copy of the book through a contest on Suspense Sisters. I was not required to write a review, but happily do so.
June 24, 2013
I love when the main character is a strong woman who knows how to handle herself. This is a great mystery story with a hint of Christianity in it. I liked how the author kept the main characters true to their character. You believe the actions they take are really ones they have thought about and would take if they were real people! I liked how the romance developed over the story and thought the story ended well. I gave this book 5/5 stars. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a Christian fiction book with mystery and romance. This was a great read!
I would like to thank the publisher for the copy of this book I enjoyed reading. I gave an honest review based on my opinion of what I read.
I would like to thank the publisher for the copy of this book I enjoyed reading. I gave an honest review based on my opinion of what I read.
December 3, 2012
Maddie is a former Army Ranger on the run from a bunch if crooked federal agents in league with a drug cartel.
She kicks serious...ahem (you know), slids across the hoods of cars and even-this isn't a spoiler, it's in the first chapter-- jumps onto the hood of a moving car.
I was like, "this chick is AWESOME!"
Chris (who she thought was dead) is also on the run. He's a well known tv journalist.
Lots of action, lots of real-world corruption of officials and a big payoff at the end. Maggie was tough, but eventually her emotions caught up with her and by the end she cries at practically anything. :-)
She kicks serious...ahem (you know), slids across the hoods of cars and even-this isn't a spoiler, it's in the first chapter-- jumps onto the hood of a moving car.
I was like, "this chick is AWESOME!"
Chris (who she thought was dead) is also on the run. He's a well known tv journalist.
Lots of action, lots of real-world corruption of officials and a big payoff at the end. Maggie was tough, but eventually her emotions caught up with her and by the end she cries at practically anything. :-)
March 27, 2017
Investigative journalist Chris Mason and former army ranger Madeleine Jerrard are under suspicion. Now they join together to unmask the betrayer at the Rio Grande Massacre, expose the officials who are behind the drug cartel on the US side of the border - and stay ahead of the people on their trail who don't want their secrets revealed.
A drug cartel, corrupt officials, murder, betrayal, shootings, bombs...and a rekindled love – a winning suspense and faith filled story from Jill Elizabeth Nelson.
#2
(David's story) #3
A drug cartel, corrupt officials, murder, betrayal, shootings, bombs...and a rekindled love – a winning suspense and faith filled story from Jill Elizabeth Nelson.
#2
(David's story) #3
December 23, 2012
This was a good one, with a very strong female protagonist - almost too strong, as little of her "feminine side" was shown - but at least she was not whimpering, waiting for the big strong man to save her.
Read
December 27, 2014Category: Inspirational Romance
April 27, 2013
Love inspired suspense Maddie/former Ranger Chris/reporter drug cartel
October 21, 2013
Loved it! This is a nail-biter for sure. A novel that can be read in an afternoon, the author will most certainly keep your attention. Very well written.
April 13, 2014
great read, loved it
March 12, 2015
Literally just finished this amazing story. I loved the characters and the story line. It was fast paced with tons of action and adventure.
February 4, 2013
Jill Elizabeth Nelson writes another pleasing story. Hard to put down.
February 28, 2013
This was definitely a book that was hard to put down. I found it very captivating.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews